Augusta, ME – Today, after Susan Collins voted for a toothless, industry-backed bill that does nothing to address cost of living, Misha Linnehan, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party released the following statement:

“Susan Collins voted 96% of the time with Trump, who says the only communities who don’t want data centers are ‘backwards and poor,’ and is backed by Elon Musk and other tech billionaires. Mainers will see through this industry-backed charade that does nothing to actually bring down costs for the families in our state who are crying out for help.”

About the Ratepayer Act:

• The bill is backed by data center companies including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

• The bill doesn’t require data centers to stop raising costs. Instead, it requires regulators to consider adopting regulations, and is “unlikely to immediately lower costs.”

  • Washington Post: The legislation was “unlikely to immediately lower energy costs.”

  • New York Times: “It was unclear whether the legislation […] would have its intended effect.”

  • The Guardian: The Ratepayer Protection Act “would fail to meaningfully protect the public from the centers’ true costs, consumer advocates warn.”

• Experts warn the Rate Payer Protection Act “protects the shareholders and CEO of utilities” instead of consumers.

Read more about how the Ratepayer Protection Act does nothing to help Mainers struggling with high costs:

The Hill: What would Jon Husted’s data center bill actually do?

• Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-Ohio) Ratepayer Protection Act aims to mitigate high electricity costs associated with data centers, but even if it passes, it’s not clear if the bill would have any impact.

• The legislation […] requires states and some electric utilities to consider a standard under which data centers would have to pay for additional costs caused by their large power demand.

• It does not require the adoption of any such standards, saying it would be up to the states or the nonregulated utilities to decide whether they want to take up any such standard. They would have two years to make that decision.
  

• […] the bill is expected to hit Democratic resistance in the Senate, where several lawmakers have criticized it as not doing very much.